Bakers picks Florida for third business services centre

1Attorneys

Baker McKenzie is set to open its third support centre in Florida as it kickstarts a business services overhaul.

The service roles that will be based in Tampa, Florida, include legal services, finance, IT, knowledge management, operations, business development, marketing and communications, and talent. The new office is expected to employ 300 people and will be fully operational at the beginning of 2020.

The firm stated that the three-year reorganisation will form a “dual-track” approach – first assessing the professional and business services teams globally and then looking at investments in new capabilities and technologies, which are intended to “modernise, simplify and enhance the quality of services” the firm provides. Other firms to have concluded business services consultations include Ashurst, Pinsent Masons and Hogan Lovells.

Jamie Lawless will be the new executive director for the Tampa centre, having previously served as director of implementation and chief operating officer of Baker McKenzie’s Washington DC and New York offices.

Bakers will be the largest global law firm to establish operations in Tampa.

The firm already has back office operations in Manila, which opened in 2000 and Belfast, which opened in 2014. Over the summer, Bakers added 150 new roles to its Belfast centre after securing extra space in the city. A building for the Tampa support centre has not yet been decided.

The firm’s global chair Paul Rawlinson said:

“We need to be continually innovating as a business and investing in ways to do things better, smarter and more efficiently. It is our people who help us achieve these ambitions. Our centres, and our plans to grow them, show that we are serious about innovating to provide faster, more efficient and more cost-effective services. And the new location in Tampa is the latest example of this.”